Endo and Exo (to science)

[Jon Skarpeid]

The distinction made by V.V.Raman about exo and endo are nice and certainly
highlights some strong tendencies. I think it should be kept in mind.
Nevertheless, the problem is even more complecated, in which I guess he
would agree.

Instead, or perhaps better, in addition to exo and indo with referance to a
geography, we should talk about exo and indo with reference to the
"academic and scientific world". You are not neccesarily an endo to this
though your are born in the West, and you might very well belong to this
"community" though your are a native Indian, African or belong to another
non-Western Culture. In a globalized world, this make sence. A colleague of
mine who has been teaching Christianity for almost 30 years, still
experience pius christians having problems with accepting the results of
the modern bible science, i.e. age and the constitution of different
sources and so on. In the same way some hindus do not like to hear that the
Veda are not eternal or 10.000 years old as a gentleman of a Bhramin tried
to convince me. The same problem will be the case for scriptures and (pius)
adherents of other religions or cultures. It is a world phenomenon that
some people (still) do not agree with the attitudes and methods of science,
be it human or naturwissenchaft. Likewise, it is a fact that many are
tempted to just pick up the results which are in accordance with their own
*a priori* views, and when that is not the case, make a lot of efforts to
comdemn the rest of the results/concenses made by sholarship. A lot of this
has in my opinion been the case on this Indology list.

Let this list be, as I guess was intended, for indologists all around the
world who are indo, or strive to be it with reference to "the academic and
scientific world".

Jon.